Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Hadron Polarimetry for the Electron-Ion Collider

  A.S. Nunes, E.C. Aschenauer, O. Eyser, W. Schmidke

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 163 (2022) · published 14 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will be the first collider to use both polarized electron beams and polarized proton and light ion beams. It will therefore offer unique opportunities to study the structure of nucleons and to answer fundamental questions in QCD. The uncertainties on the polarization measurement translate directly into the uncertainties of final physics observables. Hence, a precise measurement of the hadron beam polarization and a good control of systematic uncertainties are critical for the success of the spin program at the EIC. Contrary to the case of electron beam polarimetry, which uses physical processes derived from first principles that allow a high precision extraction of the electron beam polarization, for hadron beams no such process is available. The currently best used methods rely on the process of elastic scattering in the Coulomb-Nuclear Interference (CNI) region, for which there are only effective models available. The experience from RHIC, the only existing polarized proton collider, will be detailed and the challenges of the measurements at the EIC will be addressed. In particular, measurements of the present RHIC polarimeters and simulations of the future EIC polarimeters will be presented.

• Witten index of BMN matrix quantum mechanics

  Chi-Ming Chang

  SciPost Phys. 19, 147 (2025) · published 5 December 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute the Witten index of the Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase matrix quantum mechanics, which counts the number of ground states as well as the difference between the numbers of bosonic and fermionic BPS states with nonzero angular momenta. The Witten index sets a lower bound on the entropy, which exhibits $N^2$ growth that provides strong evidence for the existence of BPS black holes in M-theory, asymptotic to the plane-wave geometry. We also discuss a relation between the Witten index in the infinite $N$ limit and the superconformal index of the Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena theory.

• Transverse Single-Spin Asymmetries of Midrapidity Direct Photons and Neutral Mesons at PHENIX

  Nicole Lewis

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 009 (2022) · published 11 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Results are presented for the transverse single-spin asymmetries of direct photons, neutral pions, and eta mesons for $|\eta|<0.35$ from $p^\uparrow + p$ collisions with $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV at PHENIX. As hadrons, $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons are sensitive to both initial- and final-state effects and at midrapidity probe the dynamics of gluons along with a mix of quark flavors. Because direct photon production does not include hadronization, the direct photon TSSA is only sensitive to initial-state effects and at midrapidity provides a clean probe of the gluon dynamics in transversely polarized protons. All three of these results will help constrain the collinear twist-3 trigluon correlation function as well as the gluon Sivers function, improving our knowledge of spin-dependent gluon dynamics in QCD.

• Irreducible representations of $\mathbb{Z}_2^2$-graded supersymmetry algebra and their applications

  Naruhiko Aizawa

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 14, 016 (2023) · published 23 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We give a brief review on recent developments of $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$-graded symmetry in physics in which hidden $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$-graded symmetries and $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$-graded extensions of known systems are discussed. This elucidates physical relevance of the $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$-graded algebras. As an example of physically interesting algebra, we take $\mathbb{Z}_2^2$-graded supersymmetry (SUSY) algebras and consider their irreducible representations (irreps). A list of irreps for ${\cal N} = 1, 2$ algebras is presented and as an application of the irreps, $\mathbb{Z}_2^2$-graded SUSY classical actions are constructed.

• The quantum cartpole: A benchmark environment for non-linear reinforcement learning

  Kai Meinerz, Simon Trebst, Mark Rudner, Evert van Nieuwenburg

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 026 (2024) · published 7 May 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Feedback-based control is the de-facto standard when it comes to controlling classical stochastic systems and processes. However, standard feedback-based control methods are challenged by quantum systems due to measurement induced backaction and partial observability. Here we remedy this by using weak quantum measurements and model-free reinforcement learning agents to perform quantum control. By comparing control algorithms with and without state estimators to stabilize a quantum particle in an unstable state near a local potential energy maximum, we show how a trade-off between state estimation and controllability arises. For the scenario where the classical analogue is highly nonlinear, the reinforcement learned controller has an advantage over the standard controller. Additionally, we demonstrate the feasibility of using transfer learning to develop a quantum control agent trained via reinforcement learning on a classical surrogate of the quantum control problem. Finally, we present results showing how the reinforcement learning control strategy differs from the classical controller in the non-linear scenarios.

• MEG final results and progress towards MEG II

  Toshiyuki Iwamoto on behalf of the MEG II collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 040 (2019) · published 21 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The MEG experiment, which is to search for lepton flavor violating muon decay, had been successfully finished in 2013. The final sensitivity of the experiment was 5.3 × 10−13, and since the experiment did not find any signal, the upper limit of the branching ratio of the μ+ → e+γ was set to be 4.2 × 10−13 at 90% CL. The MEG II experiment will improve the sensitivity by an order of magnitude with three years data taking, and the target sensitivity is 6×10−14. In 2018 after the detector integration, the muon beam data taking will be planned with limited number of readout channels. In 2019, the engineering run and the physics run will be started.

• Tunable quantum transport in flux-driven designer rings: Role of hopping dimerization, electron filling, and phase architecture

  Souvik Roy, Ranjini Bhattacharya

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 090 (2025) · published 8 December 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explore quantum transport in a one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) ring threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm flux, incorporating a quasiperiodic site potential based on a generalized cosine modulation with both primary and secondary components. Focusing on spinful, non-interacting electrons, we analyze persistent current behavior across a broad range of filling factors, Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) phase shifts, and hopping dimerizations. Our results uncover a rich interplay of localization-delocalization transitions, driven by the secondary modulation strength, leading to highly tunable and non-monotonic transport signatures. Persistent current is markedly enhanced near the symmetric hopping regime, where quantum interference dominates. In spin-imbalanced configurations, we identify regimes exhibiting pure spin current without net charge flow, suggesting potential for dissipationless spintronic functionalities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic study to examine quantum transport in such a flux-threaded SSH ring with dual-component quasiperiodic modulations, unifying re-entrant localization, spin-current generation, current stabilization, and phase-selective control. The inverse and normalized participation ratios, together with the state-resolved current, reveal the interplay between eigenstate localization and transport, providing insight into the microscopic mechanisms underlying current suppression and enhancement. For completeness, we also present the system-size dependence of the current. These findings position the quasiperiodic SSH ring as a versatile platform for realizing controllable quantum interference and spin-resolved transport in low-dimensional systems.

• Solar neutrino physics with Borexino

  Andrea Pocar, M. Agostini, K. Altenmüller, S. Appel, V. Atroshchenko, Z. Bagdasarian, D. Basilico, G. Bellini, J. Benziger, G. Bonfini, D. Bravo, B. Caccianiga, F. Calaprice, A. Caminata, L. Cappelli, S. Caprioli, M. Carlini, P. Cavalcante, F. Cavanna, A. Chepurnov, K. Choi, L. Collica, D. D’Angelo, S. Davini, A. Derbin, X. F. Ding, A. Di Ludovico, L. Di Noto, I. Drachnev, K. Fomenko, A. Formozov, D. Franco, F. Gabriele, C. Galbiati, M. Gschwender, C. Ghiano, M. Giammarchi, A. Goretti, M. Gromov, D. Guffanti, T. Houdy, E. Hungerford, Aldo Ianni, Andrea Ianni, A. Jany, D. Jeschke, S. Kumaran, V. Kobychev, G. Korga, T. Lachenmaier, M. Laubenstein, E. Litvinovich, P. Lombardi, L. Ludhova, G. Lukyanchenko, L. Lukyanchenko, I. Machulin, G. Manuzio, S. Marcocci, J. Maricic, J. Martyn, E. Meroni, M. Meyer, L. Miramonti, M. Misiaszek, V. Muratova, B. Neumair, M. Nieslony, L. Oberauer, V. Orekhov, F. Ortica, M. Pallavicini, L. Papp, Ö. Penek, L. Pietrofaccia, N. Pilipenko, A. Porcelli, G. Raikov, G. Ranucci, A. Razeto, A. Re, M. Redchuk, A. Romani, N. Rossi, S. Rottenanger, S. Schönert, D. Semenov, M. Skorokhvatov, O. Smirnov, A. Sotnikov, L. F. F. Stokes, Y. Suvorov , R. Tartaglia, G. Testera, J. Thurn, E. Unzhakov, A. Vishneva, R. B. Vogelaar, F. von Feilitzsch, S. Weinz, M. Wojcik, M. Wurm, O. Zaimidoroga, S. Zavatarelli, K. Zuber, G. Zuzel

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 025 (2019) · published 20 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the most recent solar neutrino results from the Borexino experiment at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. In particular, refined measurements of all neutrinos produced in the {\it pp} fusion chain have been made. It is the first time that the same detector measures the entire range of solar neutrinos at once. These new data weakly favor a high-metallicity Sun. Prospects for measuring CNO solar neutrinos are also discussed.

• Light sterile neutrinos: a critical overview

  Ivan Esteban

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 026 (2019) · published 20 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Light sterile neutrinos, first proposed after the results of the LSND experiment, have been a polemical topic for the last decades after seemingly contradictory data appeared from different experiments. In this overview, I review the experimental hints that point towards sterile neutrinos as well as their statistical compatibility. Even though the muon neutrino disappearance experiments strongly rule out vanilla sterile neutrinos, each oscillation channel remains internally mostly consistent. In any case, in the near future a series of independent and precise experiments should finally settle down this issue.

• Recent results from reactor antineutrino experiments

  Hyunkwan Seo

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 027 (2019) · published 20 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The smallest neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ has been successfully measured by the disappearance of reactor antineutrinos at RENO, Daya Bay, and Double Chooz. The oscillation frequency is also measured based on energy and baseline dependent disappearance probability of reactor antineutrinos. Recent results fi nd a variation in the observed reactor antineutrino flux as a function of the reactor fuel evolution. We report more precisely measured values of $\theta_{13}$ and $\Delta m^2_{ee}$ and results on the evolution of observed reactor antineutrino yield and spectrum.